Digital camera for capturing a sequence of full and reduced resolution digital images and storing motion and still digital image data

Abstract

A method for simultaneously recording motion and still images, includes the steps of: capturing a motion image sequence and accompanying audio of a scene with a digital video camera adapted to record both motion and higher resolution still images; simultaneously capturing a still image sequence having a higher resolution and lower frame rate than the motion capture sequence; compressing the motion image sequence using interframe compression and the accompanying audio and storing the compressed motion image and audio data; and compressing the still images using intraframe coding and storing the compressed still image data.

1. A digital motion/still camera comprising:
 a) an image sensor for providing a sequence of image frames; 
 b) means for automatically providing a repeating sequence of full resolution image frames regularly interspersed between reduced resolution image frames, wherein the full resolution image frames represent images with more pixels than are represented by the reduced resolution image frames; 
 c) a first image buffer for storing at least one full resolution frame of pixel values; 
 d) a second image buffer for storing a plurality of reduced resolution frames of pixel values; and 
 e) a digital recorder coupled to the first and second image buffers for storing a repeating sequence of full and reduced resolution frames of pixel values. 
 
   
   
     2. The digital motion/still camera of  claim 1 , wherein the repeating sequence has a single full resolution frame followed by a plurality of low resolution frames. 
   
   
     3. The digital motion/still camera of  claim 1 , wherein the full resolution image is stored using a low resolution component stored as part of a motion sequence, and a full resolution component. 
   
   
     4. The digital motion/still camera of  claim 1 , wherein the apparatus further includes a processor coupled to the first image memory, that processes the stored full resolution frames prior to recording, and produces from a full resolution image frame both a low resolution frame and a high resolution image frame. 
   
   
     5. The digital motion/still camera of  claim 4 , wherein the processing period for the still image is longer than the capture frame period. 
   
   
     6. The digital motion/still camera of  claim 5 , wherein the processor also processes the reduced resolution frames in a processing period that is shorter than the capture frame period. 
   
   
     7. The digital motion/still camera of  claim 1 , further comprising a control for allowing the operator to set the number of full resolution frames to be captured per second.